The present invention relates to a display and input combination panel for displaying various operation information and for entering operation instructions related to the displayed information, and more specifically to a panel unit provided with both display panel and input panel arranged on the same area to reduce areas occupied by a conventional display panel and input panel. This combination panel is the most suitably applicable to a copying machine.
In a copying machine, an original can be copied as follows: an original is placed onto an original mounting base arranged on the top surface of the machine; an original cover member (platen cover) pivotally supported by hinges on the original mounting base is placed onto the placed original; and then the operator depresses any desired keys arranged in a keyboard of an input panel disposed outside the platen cover to copy the original under any desired conditions (the number of copies, paper size, magnification, density, the designation of copied area, etc.)
In the ordinary copying machines, however, a broad area of the machine upper surface is occupied by a display panel having light emitting diodes or liquid crystal displays and an input panel having a number of keys. The display panel serves to display various machine conditions (e.g. no paper, paper jamming, no toner, etc.) or various selectable information (e.g. paper size, magnification or minification, the number of copies, density, etc.) determined by the user through the keys.
Therefore, as copying functions provided for the copying machine increase, the area occupied by the display panel and the input panel increases on the top surface of the copying machine, thus obstructing the miniaturization of the machine and the legibility of displayed characters. In addition, since the operation of the input panel is complicated, there exists a problem in that the operability of the machine is degraded, in particular, in a copying machine by which a copied area can be selected in trimming or masking operation.